Month: September 2023

What is a digital identity?

Digital identity is an identity that develops through social interactions by the use of online platforms and communication tools (Jawed et al., 2019). It is the self-concept of an individual’s emotions, attributes, beliefs, experiences, morals, and other aspects expressed in the digital world. When people create a social media account or establish a digital certificate, they are creating a digital identity. By maintaining your account, for example updating personal profile, posting an article, sharing a story, or a photo, you enrich your digital identity. Digital identity can usually be divided into professional identity and private identity, with different purposes but many similarities in the maintenance approaches.

How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

Because the establishment goals of personal and professional digital identities are different, their impact on social media usage naturally also varies. On the one hand, personal digital identity usually focuses on expressing personal emotions, such as commenting on a movie or a short video, liking a photo of a puppy, and simply speaking about today’s mood, etc; Or focuses on sharing one’s own life experiences, such as posting a blog about one’s experience in some event, respond to others’ questions based on one’s experience, etc; Or focuses on communicating with friends, family members, or like-minded individuals who have never met before, such as discussing opinions on a certain forum, posting a barrage on a video, agreeing on things through private messages or emails, and so on. In private online communication, people are usually relaxed and stress free, and the opinions of others on what we post are often less important than the fact that we post. Most of the content of private online communication may not have much information and may not be helpful to oneself or others, but the emotional value of this process is significant, and people gain benefits beyond economic benefits during this process. On the other hand, professional identity is closely related to an individual’s career. We establish our professional reputation through online communication, showcase our professional knowledge, participate in professional meetings and discussions, collaborate with colleagues on a project, and so on. In the online professional communication process, we attach great importance to the opinions of others, emphasizing professionalism, the quality and accuracy of the content what we intend to post.

How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?

The convergence of digital identities is usually due to the interconnected nature of online platforms and the blurring of the boundary between personal and professional fields. Firstly, with the increase of social media apps, more and more people are maintaining an active online status on multiple platforms. For example, a person may have multiple accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, etc. These accounts may be related to each other, and the same post may appear on multiple platforms at the same day. Due to the association between personal social media platforms and professional platforms, the boundary between personal and professional fields can easily become blurred. Secondly, people are increasingly valuing the authenticity of online communication, encouraging people to showcase their true experiences and perspectives in a professional environment, which also allows for the integration of personal and professional identities. Finally, the online public provides individuals with a large number of communication opportunities, allowing them to establish a network of relationships that spans both personal and professional domains through the internet. In this process, personal and professional identities also converge. People discussing a certain job on professional platforms are prone to running to other personal platforms to continue discussing content related to work for various reasons, such as wanting to share this experience.

The convergence of digital identities has several benefits. It allows individuals to more freely showcase their diverse skills, thereby gaining more job opportunities or reputation. For example, we often find that our abilities demonstrated in other fields have a significant impact on a particular job in our current field. It makes communication more convenient for people. We often use private networks to achieve professional goals or establish personal relationships in a certain professional environment. The convergence of identities facilitates cooperation and communication with others, facilitates us to discover more like-minded friends, and obtains more support and encouragement.

References

Jawed, S., Mahboob, U., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: dear Internet! who am I?. Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice, 32(1).

What does it mean to a network using social media?

It means actively engage and connect with others on social media platforms. Networking on social media typically involves activities such as building a personal profile, connecting with others, sharing content with others, participating in some topics, joining in online groups or communities, and so on. Utilizing social media platforms, people can expand their social or professional circle, build relationships and maintain connections, and communicate with collaborators or potential customers.

How are we motivated to participate in networked publics?

Firstly, people use network to build relationships and maintain connections with others, and look out for common ground with others (Rajagopal et al. 2012). When we find netizens who have something in common online, we will look forward to communicating with them every day. The desire for social interaction and connection is one of the most important motivations.

Secondly, people can share or acquire information from network publics. Network publics provide the opportunity to learn massive things, develop skills, and stay updated on various interesting topics. People can gain lots of professional opportunities from network. Network publics can support one’s development and growth of professionals’ careers and continuously support professionals’ life–long learning (Rajagopal et al. 2012).

Thirdly, people can express and show their talents, thoughts, and abilities through the Internet, and then receive feedback from others, thereby gaining more incentives to improve themselves. While satisfying the public recognition needed by humans, it also establishes their own influence, which is also very helpful for personal career development and so on.

Finally, I think most people will participate in online public activities for entertainment and entertainment purposes. Gaming platforms and social media provide countless engaging activities and content, and people will unconsciously spend a lot of time on them. For example, many people get up every day with the motivation of seeing if there are any new posts from the people or animals they follow. There are also many people who stay up late every day because they want to clear a certain game.

What are the risks & rewards of public communications?

Risks:

One of the main risks of public communications is the threaten to privacy (Boyd and Danah, 2012). We actively or passively share our information, photos, stories, etc. every day. Sometimes, while actively sharing our own information, we may unconsciously share others’ information as well. For example, when we share a selfie on the internet, the background will include more or less the figure of passers-by and the appearance of surrounding buildings. Moreover, with the rapid development of AI technology, many large-scale AI tools learn human thinking and creation by crawling large amounts of content on the Internet. These training data contain massive personal information, which may one day be exposed to more people through the decompilation of AI tools. Moreover, threats to personal privacy may lead to more serious personal security issues. After people post personal information online, it is difficult to prevent some people with ulterior motives from discovering their whereabouts and movements.

Secondly, sometimes unconscious misrepresentations on the Internet can affect the reputation, interpersonal relationships, public image, and mental health of individuals or groups. When communication errors occur, negative messages will inevitably spread rapidly, causing a very negative impact on the public. In particular, when online violence occurs, it can have an insidious effect on individuals or organizations that cannot be erased.

Finally, the fast spreading nature of the network may also cause some legal issues. When some sensitive or confidential information is inadvertently released, or when some defamatory or false information is released as a means of personal emotional venting, it can lead to serious legal consequences.

Rewards:

Fast public communications can effectively convey messages to a wide audience for inspiring others, or to target audience for gaining opportunities of collaboration or business activities. Public communications facilitate people’s connections with stakeholders, customers, or the public, providing more opportunities to build trust and credibility. It can help individuals or organizations develop their careers, establish or strengthen social influence.

People or government can guide public opinion and behavior through public communications, which can have a positive impact on social change. It allows individuals or organizations to advocate for causes, promote change, or raise awareness.

References

Boyd, Danah. “Networked privacy.” Surveillance & society 10.3/4 (2012): 348.
Rajagopal, Kamakshi, et al. “Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them.” First Monday 17.1 (2012): 1-12.